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What is the sound of one joke bombing?

Garfield, 2/7/05

Sally Forth signals her understanding and appreciation of her own wit or that of others with a look that one of my brilliant readers refers to as “sly”; but Garfield proves to be the Zen master of the minimalist reaction shot. See how Jon, his eyelids heavy with ennui, reacts to Garfield’s typically wacky demand: he doesn’t go overboard letting us know the punchline has happened, he just tips his head back about a quarter of an inch and moves his eyes slightly to the right. Why hit everybody over the head with it? It’s not a Three Stooges routine.

There’s just something about Garfield that gets everybody up and agitated, whether they’re combining him with Satan, running him over with a van, or doing alarming, freaky things that you really have to see to appreciate. (Thanks to Nicholas, Lynn, and Michal, respectively, for the tips. Folks, we’re all gonna get sued.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 8, 2005 at 10:02 pm and is filed under Garfield. |

43 responses to “What is the sound of one joke bombing?”

  1. Josh
    February 9th, 2005 at 12:42 am [Reply]

    This strip would be a lot funnier if the last panel had no dialogue, and no reaction.

    It would also be the definitive Garfield.

  2. Zanzibar
    February 9th, 2005 at 2:46 am [Reply]

    I like the idea of a comic called “Garfield: Backgrounds,” where it would just be the blank background and the little sliver of unspecified surface-space day after day. It seems like the range of jokes and characters is getting smaller every year, so maybe Jim Davis is already heading in that direction.

  3. Shaenon
    February 9th, 2005 at 2:50 am [Reply]

    So can Jon hear what his cat is thinking, or what?

    At the Cartoon Art Museum, we used to give kids comic strips with the dialogue whited out and have them fill in their own jokes. I swear a ten-year-old came up with this exact strip two years ago.

  4. Zanzibar
    February 9th, 2005 at 3:02 am [Reply]

    To be fair, though, I should say that last week’s bird-eating series was a change of pace, with at least a slightly macabre undertone. It begins here and then goes up to February 5th:

    http://www.ucomics.com/garfield/2005/01/31/

    The oversized tongue on 2/2 and the decoy bird on 2/3 are particularly good touches.

  5. Dan
    February 9th, 2005 at 12:07 pm [Reply]

    Josh is right… it is a lot funnier:

    http://dan.recreant.com/images/garfield.gif

    Sorry, I get bored at work sometimes.

  6. Leons Petrazickis
    February 9th, 2005 at 12:44 pm [Reply]

    Uh, Dan, you weren’t supposed to erase the outstretched hand.;)

    However, moving Jon’s eyes back to Garfield would be a good idea.

  7. "-"
    February 9th, 2005 at 1:59 pm [Reply]

    Actually Josh – great name for a comic, eh? Josh! – was absolutely right. This would be the classic two panel strip if it was two panels. Garfield’s eyes supply all the interaction needed.

    Let’s have Dan make a two panel and we’ll vote about it.

    “-”

  8. Brucker
    February 9th, 2005 at 7:51 pm [Reply]

    Holy crap…

    No, you guys didn’t go far enough to see the true genius. Try the strip with no Garfield dialogue at all:

    Feb. 7th

    This seems to be a magic formula for “Garfield”. Behold, funnier:

    Jan. 31st

    …and absolutely hilarious:

    Feb. 2nd

  9. Steve
    February 9th, 2005 at 9:44 pm [Reply]

    You know, Brucker’s right about the hilarity of those strips totally lacking in Garfield dialogue. It makes you appreciate it in terms of Shaenon’s question about whether Jon can hear his cat thinking.

    If we presume Jon cannot hear his cat thinking, the Life Of Jon we’re left with is that of Brucker’s doctored strips–that’s just one WEIRD cat. Jon doesn’t really know WHY the cat’s acting that way–all he can do is cope with it.

    It sort of gives it the feel of someone’s real life that’s just really bizarre and makes it funny in a way I never expected Garfield to be.

  10. bryce
    February 9th, 2005 at 10:11 pm [Reply]

    The panels stripped of dialogue reminds me of my girlfriend’s formula for making Garfield funny by removing one panel (usually the last one). If you try it with most of them, it’ll work. They become much more abstract and ridiculous, with no lame punch line to tie them down.

  11. P. A. Phelps
    February 9th, 2005 at 10:30 pm [Reply]

    No, seriously folks has anybody smelled this cat’s breath? Funky funky funky. Get him a mint. My eyes are watering, and it’s definitely not from laughter.

  12. John Sparks
    February 10th, 2005 at 12:06 am [Reply]

    WTF is with that site with the mirror image halves of the garfield strips?

  13. deafmute
    February 10th, 2005 at 2:37 am [Reply]

    Garfield gets very sublime and amazing when edited in any way. I love it. Here is a thread on metafilter.com where a bunch of people experimented with a make your own Garfield strip tool.

    http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/36420

    My personal favorite:

    http://signalkorps.com/images/risible.gif

  14. SS
    February 10th, 2005 at 10:19 am [Reply]

    Dialogue? Why do you people keep on calling Garfield’s thoughts dialogue? Is he thinking or speaking? After I read a Garfield strip I can’t sleep for nights on end trying to figure out if Garfield is talking or thinking. If he is just thinking how the hell does Jon understand him?!? If he is speaking, why doesn’t Jon just shoot him?!?!

  15. Honey
    February 10th, 2005 at 11:28 am [Reply]

    http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp10212004.shtml

  16. Akmal
    February 10th, 2005 at 1:37 pm [Reply]

    Someone needs to launch a serious investigation into the whereabouts of Jon’s mustachioed gay lover Lyman, who was Odie’s original owner before the revisionism of the Garfield movie. I think he was last seen circa 1982…

  17. Brucker
    February 10th, 2005 at 3:06 pm [Reply]

    You know, a lot of these get very good with no thought balloons *and* the dropping of the final panel:

    Sample 1

    Sample 2

    It’s a sort of abstrct minimalism.

  18. tal
    February 10th, 2005 at 4:21 pm [Reply]

    that last one is fantastic. Be ever vigilant!

    it’s dadaism at its finest.

  19. Zanzibar
    February 10th, 2005 at 5:42 pm [Reply]

    It’d be good if there were a third panel in the “Be ever vigilant” one of something entirely unrelated, like Jon’s empty living room.

  20. Albrecht
    February 10th, 2005 at 5:51 pm [Reply]

    I think this last one is one of the best of the mirror-image Garfields. It’s absurd and funny because of the modification, but the fragments of the strip are themselves also fairly surreal.

    http://www.castlezzt.net/index14.htm

  21. Isaac B2
    February 10th, 2005 at 6:39 pm [Reply]

    Garfield, will you ever cease to amuse me? Lordy, I hope not.

  22. John Sparks
    February 11th, 2005 at 1:35 am [Reply]

    In the Garfield show, Garfield explains that although he cannot talk, he has an implanted device that reads aloud his thoughts. I am not kidding.

  23. Alex
    February 11th, 2005 at 1:06 pm [Reply]

    I have to wonder, reading the Bird Eating Saga, why Jon is so horrified and disgusted by Garfield eating birds… Wouldn’t he be happy that a his cat is finding his own food, rather than eating everything in the house? Wouldn’t he allow the hunter instinct of the feline mind to run free? Why is it so horrible to him that a cat may want to chase and slay wild birds?

    Jon likes to bitch about his cat, but it’s obvious that he’s giving Garfield many mixed signals. I hate to think of housebreaking techniques in that household.

  24. Zanzibar
    February 15th, 2005 at 6:26 am [Reply]

    Why is it that the back of Jon’s hair is black, with those three stripes above his ear? I’ve wondered that for a long time.

  25. Zanzibar
    February 16th, 2005 at 1:45 am [Reply]

    Also, on Sunday there was another of the Garfield-on-the-fence comics, after what seems like a very long absence:

    http://www.ucomics.com/garfield/2005/02/13/

  26. Zanzibar
    February 19th, 2005 at 1:43 am [Reply]

    It seems as though I’m the only one trying to keep the Garfield entry alive. I suppose I’ll give up for now, until the next post comes.

  27. Jack masters
    February 20th, 2005 at 4:12 am [Reply]

    Hi, I made those mirrored garfield comics, and only recently discovered i have the ability to see who links to me!

    Uh, the end! My website has other stuff on it now.

  28. Brucker
    February 20th, 2005 at 9:48 pm [Reply]

    Somebody has to keep “Garfield” alive, Zanzibar. Jim Davis certainly isn’t.

  29. Zanzibar
    February 21st, 2005 at 7:48 am [Reply]

    I like the new series of strips at the top, Jack Masters, but I think, now that the old castlezzt.net has achieved semi-legendary status, you should create an alternate website to preserve its format.

    In a continuation of my Garfield post in the 2/18 hiatus entry, which was itself a continuation of my posts here, I offer for consideration the Garfield canary strips and Garfield “give me food” strip in Russian:

    http://img.lj.com.ua/daily-garfield/ruga050131.gif

    http://img.lj.com.ua/daily-garfield/ruga050201.gif

    http://img.lj.com.ua/daily-garfield/ruga050202.gif

    http://img.lj.com.ua/daily-garfield/ruga050203.gif

    http://img.lj.com.ua/daily-garfield/ruga050204.gif

    http://img.lj.com.ua/daily-garfield/ruga050205.gif

    http://img.lj.com.ua/daily-garfield/ruga050207.gif

  30. Zanzibar
    February 21st, 2005 at 7:52 am [Reply]

    I like the new series of strips at the top, Jack Masters, but I think, now that the old castlezzt.net has achieved semi-legendary status, you should create an alternate website to preserve its format.

    In a continuation of my Garfield post in the 2/18 hiatus entry, which was itself a continuation of my posts here, I offer for consideration the Garfield canary strips and Garfield “give me food” strip in Russian:

    Garfield 1/31

    Garfield 2/1

    Garfield 2/2

    Garfield 2/3

    Garfield 2/4

    Garfield 2/5

    Garfield 2/7

  31. Zanzibar
    February 21st, 2005 at 7:53 am [Reply]

    I like the new series of strips at the top, Jack Masters, but I think, now that the old castlezzt.net has achieved semi-legendary status, you should create an alternate website to preserve its format.

    In a continuation of my Garfield post in the 2/18 hiatus entry, which was itself a continuation of my posts here, I offer for consideration the Garfield canary strips and Garfield “give me food” strip in Russian:

    Garfield 1/31

    Garfield 2/1

  32. Zanzibar
    February 21st, 2005 at 7:53 am [Reply]

    Garfield 2/2

    Garfield 2/3

  33. Zanzibar
    February 21st, 2005 at 7:54 am [Reply]

    Garfield 2/4

    Garfield 2/5

  34. Zanzibar
    February 21st, 2005 at 7:54 am [Reply]

    Garfield 2/7

  35. Zanzibar
    February 21st, 2005 at 7:58 am [Reply]

    I broke it up in this way because, possibly as an anti-spam measure, it wasn’t allowing me to post all of the links at once. This also explains the reason that my post of original Ed Dodd-illustrated Mark Trail images (intending to note their stylistic similarities, such as the constant exclamation points and foregrounded animals, but also their far greater wealth of detail) didn’t come through, which I had previously credited to my own error.

  36. ocd
    February 25th, 2005 at 5:08 pm [Reply]

    The castlezzt.net site is fantastic!

  37. Zanzibar
    February 27th, 2005 at 4:06 am [Reply]

    The posting attempts that I thought were unsuccessful seem to have reappeared; therefore, to truly experience the unadulterated monotony that is Garfield, I recommend you view each one of the repeated links. It would be good if the same has happened with my Mark Trail post, but I shouldn’t get too hopeful.

  38. Creford
    April 7th, 2005 at 9:13 pm [Reply]

    This moive is wonderful with perfect 3D graphic. Garfield in the movie is really a cool and smart cat who can dance admirably. When he went to the tall building to saved the dog Odie and went down, it was very cool! But it was so dangerous when he dropped down from the tall building.
    The story line is superb and jokey, and the actress is very beautiful and cute. It was very incredible for Jon that the girl could love him, I also have the same feeling and the same experience with Jon.

  39. Zanzibar
    April 19th, 2005 at 7:14 pm [Reply]

    Well said, Creford.

  40. Josh
    May 22nd, 2008 at 7:20 pm [Reply]

    All those links are dead. Double dead. And such.
    -J

  41. Andrey
    October 26th, 2008 at 4:08 pm [Reply]

    Erectile dysfunction

  42. erin
    July 31st, 2010 at 6:57 pm [Reply]

    I know I know I know you guys probably already know about this, but:

    http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/

    (garfield… minus garfield.)

    and

    http://www.lasagnacat.com/

    (live-action re-enactments of garfield comics, plus tributes to Jim Davis.)

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